Mike_LowELL:Which wouldn't be a problem if the puzzles in Portal were difficult, but they're not. (The first time I played through the game, I finished the advanced add-on courses thinking they were the final levels within the game as originally designed.)

By modern standards, Bioshock IS a better game. Yes, SS2 was the precursor and did much of the same things but it, on the whole, is hard to play now because the graphics really hold it down. If it was released as a downloadable game on the Xbox live market place, it might sell a few copies but no one would seriously play it (see - Bungie's Marathon games). So - since Bioshock is essentially the same game but with amazing graphics, it is easy to see why it will hold up better and linger longer in people's memories.

/loved SS2. Not saying anything really bad about the game. But it didn't sell when it was new, the graphics are horrid, and it really is a game best left in the past.

Mike_LowELL:Mentalpatient87: He fancies himself as some sort of authority on video games. Have you seen his awful blog?

What did I say that you disagree with? Or is this one of those "I disagree you but I don't quite have the knowledge of the topic to refute your opinions, so I'll try to paint you as a smarmy elitist" conversations?

Yeah, I get you. You are smarter than the rest of us. It is just video games, dude - it is all subjective.

except portal. dude, seriously, if you didn't like portal you really should take a break from gaming, you are far too jaded.

doglover:Cythraul: But almost any game these days that has a decent budget should probably be considered 'art.'

False.

GTA 4 had a huge budget and was an amazing game at the time, but it wasn't groundbreaking or meaningful, it was just a game.

if you took no meaning from Niko Bellic's tragic tale, then I simply don't know how to talk to you. The story told in GTA4 is amazingly well thought out and is absolutely art. It is also an amazing game NOW. No other sandbox style game has bettered it, and the only thing out that comes close is Red Dead Redemption, amazingly enough a game made by the same folks.

/i know people still claim that San Andreas was better. It is not. Most of the crap you do in that game was tedious and not fun in any way. It told a great story but the GAME is hard to play after playing GTA4. Man, you just can't go back to primitive 3d graphics.

Nurglitch:Antimatter: Videogames are no different then film really, it's just they let the viewer have some control over how the story is presented, rather then being passively taking in the experience.

Video games aren't necessarily narrative. Tetris, for example, is not a metaphor for anything.

It's a metaphor for the Communist takeover of Eastern europe. As the proletariat descends into poverty, they must find ways to work together. Once they find a way to fit into the existing power structure, and reach a critical mass, all obstacles are removed. The line block is a revolution. If the proles don't work together, eventually the system descends into anarchy. As the march of history progresses, the people will work faster and faster, until eventually the glory of the Soviet will cover the whole world.

Nurglitch:Antimatter: Videogames are no different then film really, it's just they let the viewer have some control over how the story is presented, rather then being passively taking in the experience.

Video games aren't necessarily narrative. Tetris, for example, is not a metaphor for anything.